Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Easy Curtain Fix

I’m in love with my new Ikea curtains for the master bedroom. However, had I known the trouble they would give me, I may not have purchased them. That’s not true. I love them that much. Tell me if you can relate to the picture below.

They are insanely wide, because they’re meant for pleat hooks (which I didn’t know at the time of purchase). I tried the pleat hooks. And then I tried the pleat hooks 4 more times. I ended up wanting to murder every pleat hook ever made. Sooo I went with the ring clips. After a few attempts at trying to figure out how to gather them so they didn’t look overly awkward, I thought I had found it. I didn’t.

I didn’t like how much lower the curtains were. The ceilings are vaulted in this room, so the extra several inches really made a difference in the height. Bummer. Let’s try one more solution.

I laid the curtain out flat and tied a ribbon around a long screwdriver.

Using the screwdriver as the guide, it was incredibly easy to slide the ribbon right through the rod pocket—especially because the back portion was a plastic liner meant for the pleat hooks. The ones I want to murder.

Once the ribbon was through, I had to be careful not to lose one of the ends. I slid it back onto the curtain rod and gathered the ribbon.

After moving it around to the width I desired, I tied a little knot behind the curtain. No one will ever see it—including my husband who nearly ripped the curtain off the rod trying to move it. Grr.

And the final product? Perfectly gathered curtains at the height I wanted! Yippee! I really wanted to use these as the light block for this room too (and get rid of the shades), but I’m completely happy with them staying gathered. For now?

I can’t possibly be the only one with all these random curtain problems, right? Well, just in case I’m not, hopefully this is a solution for you!